Various types of portable coolers have been designed to enable persons to keep food items such as canned beverages handy while traveling and engaging in various outdoor activities where a traditional electric refrigerator is not available. The traditional portable cooler was simply an insulated container. Food may be chilled longer by adding cooling means to an insulated container. Examples of such cooling means include ice, various cold packs containing a chillable or freezable liquid, and various thermoelectric cooling means. Thermoelectric cooling means include devices which require constant electrical input and devices which require only intermittent electrical input. Such thermoelectric coolers are often chilled by relatively portable electric sources such as automobile cigarette lighter outlets and portable batteries and generators.
A large portion of the chilled air inside of a cooler is lost due to the influx of ambient air each time that the lid of a cooler is removed. Much of the rifling through a cooler is done to choose from an assortment of food items. Since it is often desirable to provide an abundance of cool beverages during sporting and leisure events, it would be beneficial to provide a self-dispensing cooler designed especially for dispensing a favorite packaged beverage item with a minimum loss of cooled air upon dispensing. There is a need for a portable-sized cooler designed particularly to maximize the storage capacity and cooling efficiency of food items, particularly beverages packaged in cylindrical containers. Such an improved cooler design should be beneficially used with either thermoelectric or non-thermoelectric cooling means.